Battalion’s name splits Army

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8

Battalion’s name splits Army

NZPA-Reuter San Salvador A split has developed in the Salvadorean Army over whether to name an elite battalion after President Ronald Reagan. Colonel Jorge Adalbert© Cruz, military commander of San Francisco Gotera, the provincial capital of Morazan province, announced at the week-end that he had dubbed 350 crack counter-insurgency troops “The Ronald Reagan Battalion” in honour of the President’s staunch support of the Salvadorean Army in its fight against Leftist rebels. Photographs published in the local press yesterday showed members of the battalion with United Stites-

made Ml 6 rifles preparing to fight rebels near the town of Yoloaiquin, 115 km east of San Salvador, the country’s capital. But apparently Colonel Cruz’s superiors did not think that naming the battalion after Mr Reagan was such a good idea. “As far as we are concerned, the Reagan Battalion does not exist,” said an Army spokesman, Colonel Ricardo Aristedes Cienfuegos. Colonel Cruz told the local press that the battalion would be officially inaugurated on May 7. But Colonel Cienfuegos said that he “had no knowledge whatsoever” of any official move to christen the battalion.